Fancy having something controversial imprinted on your skin forever? Well, some tattoo parlours will be giving out free swastika tattoos next week.

The event is called “Learn to love the swastika” and is being held next Wednesday at parlours across the world.

Organisers of the global event posted on Facebook that the event was to “spread knowledge and appreciation of the gentle swastika”.

The new campaign is part of a world-wide campaign to “reclaim” the symbol, which was a sign of strength, luck, and other decidedly un-facist-like attitudes before more infamously being used by the Nazis in the Second World War.

Individuals around the world are offering their services free of charge after being inspired by a Canadian artist and poet called ManWoman, who wrote the book Gentle Swastika, Reclaiming the Innocence.

From the 1960s until his death last year, he had been urging the world to rethink the way the swastika is seen, covering himself in more the symbol more than 200 times.

Audrie Cabena, who works at Yankee Tattoo Parlour in Scotland, which is participating in the event next week, told the Evening Telegraph that “it is important to recover that symbol and educate people.”

“It has been a peace symbol for thousands of years, but it is now seen as a symbol of hatred just because of a relatively short amount of time.

She admitted it might not be “safe” to walk around with a swastika on you, but added: “If I receive any backlash over this then I will have to deal with it when it happens.

“There are hundreds of artists doing this all over the world now and I think it is an thing important to be involved with.”

But a spokeswoman for Show Racism The Red Card in Scotland told the Daily Record: “I’m shocked – really shocked – by this. I’m appalled.

“I don’t think anyone today would see the swastika as a peace symbol, and I would advise against any legitimate tattooing business doing this.

“Much as the swastika may have started as meaning one thing, fascism is what it represents now.”

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